SOUTH BEND, Ind. – The luck of the Irish was not shining on the weather forecast last weekend…. SOUTH BEND, Ind. – The luck of the Irish was not shining on the weather forecast last weekend. For the second consecutive meet, the Panther cross country team had to battle the remnants of a tropical storm in order to compete.

As the wind and rain churned over the flat five-mile course, the men raced through the water and the mud. Leading the way for the Panther men through the torrential rains was the tandem of Mike Diano and Dan Hull.

Diano navigated the sloppy course in 26 minutes and 44 seconds, which was good enough for 48th place overall, while Hull was close on his heels in 58th place, finishing just 10 seconds behind Diano.

Nick Westerman was the third Panther across the line in a time of 27:03, which placed him 67th overall.

“Nick has been very consistent for us and has not really had a bad race,” cross country coach Waddie Freeman said about Westerman’s consistency.

Finishing fourth for Pitt, and 89th overall, was sophomore Andrew Zang. Zang dashed to a time of 27:31, while teammate Jeryl Wilborn rounded out the top five with a time of 27:56, which was good enough for 107th place overall.

The efforts of the team earned it a 16th place finish out of 22 teams in the gold division, and despite the close finish of the Panthers, Freeman still thought there was a lot of room for improvement.

“We didn’t perform up to our capabilities today,” Freeman said. “We weren’t aggressive enough.”

Freeman’s displeasure with the performance could also be attributed to how the men started the race.

“We didn’t get out fast enough, and on a sloppy course you’re not going to pass a lot of people,” Freeman said. “We just haven’t shown the confidence to run in the big races yet.”

Coming off a second place finish two weeks ago at the Duquesne Invitational, the women’s team was ready to try its hand at three nationally ranked teams in the Blue Division.

With No. 3 Stanford, No. 5 Notre Dame, and No. 18 Wisconsin in the race, the level of competition was going to be much like it would be in the Big East Championships, according to Freeman.

“The Big East is by far the toughest conference in the nation to run in,” Freeman said. “To compete with this competition here will be a lot like competing at the Big East Championships because the top four teams in the Big East are here today.”

Leading the way once again for the women was sophomore Maureen McCandless, who finished in 26th place despite falling during the race while holding down the eighth spot behind some of the top runners in the country. After getting up, McCandless crossed the line in a time of 18:16.

However, McCandless was not the only Panther to become a victim of the water-logged course. Junior Rachel Rothe also took a tumble, but did recover to finish in 113th place with a time of 19:14. Following Rothe and finishing third for Pitt, and 170th overall, was Nicola Angstadt.

Junior Dawn Hilgert was the fourth Panther across the line, which earned her 182nd place in a time of 20:24. Rounding out the top five for Pitt was Beth Rocks, who finished 193rd overall with a time of 20:51.

“We just didn’t run well as a team today,” Freeman said, voicing his disappointment with the women’s 23rd place finish. “Our No. 4 runner [Kelly O’Connell] was ill today so she was unable to run and the course didn’t help us either.”

Freeman did however see a silver lining to the subpar performances of both teams.

“This was a learning experience. We’re still a young team, and we’re going to use this as a stepping stone to make us better.” Freeman said. “We’ll use this experience and build on it.”

The Panthers will return to action Oct. 19 when they will travel to the Pre-NCAA Championships.